


Silver Springs

by Well_Then_Extract



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Again, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Flashbacks, Fluff, I think james is in this but I'm not completely sure, M/M, Neck Kissing, Non-Linear Narrative, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Season/Series 03, Slow Dancing, apparently that's all I write now, back at it again with the self indulgent fics, fuck you, hopper didn't die, idk if this counts as a song fic but music is a key component, oh right troy is a harrington in this too, what should be an illegal amount of fleetwood mac, will didn't move away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Well_Then_Extract/pseuds/Well_Then_Extract
Summary: 'You could be my silver springBlue-green colors flashingI would be your only dreamYour shining autumn ocean crashing'Will makes Troy a mixtape and Troy acts exactly how you think he would.
Relationships: Will Byers/Troy Walsh
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Silver Springs

**Author's Note:**

> *thinks about fleetwood mac thinks about fleetwood mac thinks about fleetwood mac thinks about fleetwood mac thinks about fleetwood mac thinks about-*  
> HELLO EVERYONE!!  
> I'm back with more self-indulgent fluff that I have dragged out of my drafts.  
> I wrote this back in August, which explains all the late summer references despite the fact that I am posting this in December.  
> This is your Christmas present guys! Fluffy shit I wrote when I was sad to make myself feel better. I hope you all appreciate it, this might be all you get for a while :(  
> I wanted to see some more fluffy Will and Troy content, content of their relationship when it's further along but without so much angst. So I decided to be the change that I wish to see in the world.  
> Anyway, this fanfic is about Will giving Troy a mixtape, because I think that's so romantic and I desperately want a girl to do that for me. But all of the songs on here are preceded by a short message from Will, and although I think that's fairly obvious to gather from the context I just wanted to give you a heads up.  
> All of these songs are bops, you should listen to them.  
> I hope you enjoy! Go on and read and listen to Fleetwood Mac.

“What is this?” Troy asked, picking up the box and rattling it.

They were at Will’s house where Troy, like every day, was dropping Will off after school. Carpooling made sense, they went to the same school and didn’t live that far apart and this way Will didn’t have to take the bus or ask Max, his sister’s girlfriend, for an awkward ride home. It made more sense when they started dating, and Troy could sometimes drop Will off at his house and then stick around for a few hours, or they could drive out somewhere empty and make out in the car, or they could get food at a weird time of day, whenever they wanted.

“I made you a tape so you can finally figure out what music you like,” Will explained, and nudged the box a little closer to him, “surprise.”

“Wow, is this your latest attempt to give me taste in music?” Troy joked, taking the little box and flipping it over in his hands. It was wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper even though it was September. There was a tiny blue paper bow on it and a little tag with his name and a heart next to it.

“It’s a present,” Will stated and gestured towards the wrapping paper, “you’re welcome.”

“Is it for Christmas?” Troy asked, rattling the box, and it did sound like there was a tape or something like that inside.

“Shut up, I couldn’t find anything else to put it in,” Will defended, punching Troy’s arm, “and I actually put a lot of effort into this so you better appreciate it.”

“I appreciate everything you do,” Troy said, half-serious, grabbing Will’s hand and squeezing it.

“Whatever,” Will scoffed, smiling teasingly at Troy and squeezing his hand back.

Will sighed and dropped his hand from Troy’s grip, propping himself up on the seat with the same hand.

“Anyway, I think you’ll like it, and I’m excited for you to listen to it,” Will said, smiling softly at Troy. He leaned over and met Troy halfway in a kiss, then he got out of the car and closed the door.

“Listen to the tape!” He called over his shoulder, backward walking up the driveway, “let me know what you think!”

Troy smiled at Will and then glanced down at the little box in his lap.

He hassled Will about it, about how he wrapped up the gift in Christmas wrapping paper and how Will was always talking about how one day he was going to show Troy the type of music he should listen to, but he was already gushing internally about how Will had given him a mixed tape. And he was definitely going to listen to it as soon as he got home and probably scream about it into his pillow. He ran his fingers across the wrapping paper for the rest of the drive home, anxiously waiting to listen to it.

* * *

_Seven Wonders- Fleetwood Mac_

_”Hey, I know we talked about this and you know I hate planes and I know you hate crowds so who knows if we’ll ever get anywhere besides this shitty state but… but I thought a lot about road trips and traveling… with you, and I just *laugh* I just got emotional. I kinda hope that shows here, I kinda hope you get the same feeling. It’d be nice to take a road trip, I think.”_

Troy didn’t have very good taste in music, at least that’s what Will said.

Whenever Troy came over to Will’s house, Will would put on music and explain to Troy who it was and why it was good and Troy always spaced out during it. Apparently, you got your music taste from other people, and Troy didn’t know anyone with taste. His parents hardly ever listened to music even though they had a ton of records, and Steve mostly listened to whatever people told him to listen to.

(Although from what Troy could tell, Steve was also being bossed around by Jonathan about music. The Byers were pushy people.)

So Troy was mostly just being told what to listen to by Will, although Troy forgot everything Will said about music or artists or whatever happened to whatever band as soon as he wasn’t around Will anymore, so Will had to repeat himself a lot. It’s not that Troy didn’t listen, or try to remember what Will said about things like that, it’s just that he got distracted, and he never had any context to what Will was saying.

He didn’t know these people, so it was hard for him to care about their lives and what caused them to write this song. It was hard for him to remember band names and song titles, usually, he was only able to hold onto one and that left him feebly trying to get Will to understand what song he was talking about using crude bits and pieces of information.

Also, sometimes Will told Troy these bits and pieces while they were kissing, pulling away from Troy to talk about what was playing, and Troy was always disoriented after Will kissed him. Troy was always a little dizzy and breathless and weak after Will kissed him, even still.

(Even after a year.)

Currently, Troy was at Will’s house, squinting at his biology homework.

He was staring at a structure of some kind of molecule, but it just looked like a constellation made out of C’s and H’s.

(If he unfocused his eyes, it looked like a beetle.)

He was supposed to name it, and he couldn’t come up with the right answer. Carbo- hydro- oxy- something like that. He was very close to putting ‘carbo-beetle’ on the paper as his answer. Biology was harder than it was in eighth grade.

Besides, he kept getting distracted by the music Will was playing. Troy had to listen to something he knew while he was doing homework, otherwise, he’d get distracted by the new information. Which was what was happening right now.

“What is this?” Troy asked, looking up from his half-finished homework.

He was laying on Will’s bed, his head hanging over the edge upside down.

“Fleetwood Mac,” Will answered, still focused on his notebook, “I don’t like them as much as some of the other bands I listen to, but they’re alright.”

“I like it,” Troy remarked, tapping his pencil on his notebook in tune to the song.

“Really?” Will asked incredulously, erasing something.

“Yeah, it’s like, soft and calm. It makes me feel like, peaceful I think.”

Will laughed, glancing over at Troy.

“Alright, you like Fleetwood Mac, noted.”

Troy nodded along now, shaking his head back and forth gently.

“What are you writing there?” Will asked, tilting his head and smiling in amusement.

“Nothing. It’s homework but I can’t really focus on it,”

“Probably because all your blood is in your head, dummy,”

“Maybe, I’m not gonna sit up though,”

Will shook his head and erased again.

“What are _you_ writing?”

“Nothing,” Will echoed, grinning.

“Are you drawing? Are you drawing _me_?”

“Don’t be so egotistical Troy, it’s a bad look for you,” Will taunted, then scribbled some more on the page.

“Then what are you drawing?”

"Nothing…” Will tilted his head and erased again.

“I wanna see!” Troy exclaimed then sat up and leaned over to look at Will’s notebook.

“No! You don’t get to see it!” Will defended, lifting his arms up so Troy couldn’t see the notebook.

“I just want like, one look,” Troy argued, getting up on his knees and reaching for it.

“No! It’s not ready yet!” Will yelled, he laughed in the middle of the sentence as he pushed Troy away with one hand and held the notebook out of his reach with the other.

“Just- I just, let me see,” Troy insisted, laughing and fumbling for it.

“No- now you never get to see because you’re-” Will pushed Troy away again, snickering, “you’re being an ass!”

When Will pushed Troy over he grabbed onto Will’s arm and pulled him down with him, so they both fell over onto the bed in a laughing mess. Will had let go of the notebook and it had landed on the floor, as did Troy’s only half done homework. Will’s arm fell on Troy’s stomach as they both laid on the bed.

“You are nosy,” Will complained, inching his face a little closer to Troy’s, their noses were touching.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, you’ve seen my mother.”

“Aha! So you’re predisposed to be gossipy!” Will poked Troy’s arm.

“I would _never_ gossip about _you_.” Troy insisted, smiling.

“That seems very sincere,”

“Oh does it? Is it because I smiled when I said it?”

“Definitely, I think you should always-” Will was cut off by the door opening, and Will and Troy both looked up at El standing in the doorway.

“Dinner’s ready dorks,” she said, frowning at Troy.

“Thank you El,” he said. She huffed and turned around, leaving the door open.

“I spit in your food!” She called from down the hall.

“I’d expect nothing less!” Troy yelled back.

“You’ll get along eventually,” Will reassured, voice soft all of the sudden. He gently bumped his nose into Troy’s.

“You keep saying that, it doesn’t happen.”

Will sighed, shifting closer to Troy and closing his eyes.

“It will though, eventually.”

“Right,” Troy agreed, resting his forehead on Wills and closing his eyes too, “eventually.”

* * *

_Landslide- Fleetwood Mac_

_”Well this song isn’t very romantic, but it’s kinda about overcoming struggles and shit, and sometimes it makes me feel better when I’m feeling shitty and I thought maybe it’d help you too. I know things aren’t always great for us, and I know that a lot of the time things are hard, but I want you to know that I believe in you, whatever that’s worth. I want- I want you to feel like you can depend on me, like whatever else is going crazy in your life I’ll be here, no matter what. Anyway, I think you’ll be able to get through anything, really, and that you are capable of a lot more than what you think. Yeah, just, listen to the song.”_

Troy was not looking forward to going home that day.

He had failed a biology test because he kept forgetting the names and formulas and structures of molecules, and it seemed like he could remember one thing but not all three. The teacher had passed his test back face down, and when Troy turned it over there was a ‘see me after class’ note scribbled on the front. His grade was already struggling, and after this test, it had probably sunken down even further. He was anxiously dreading the end of the day when he’d have to go home and desperately hide the failed test from his parents if he wanted to avoid a screaming match with his parents.

He had talked with the teacher, and it wasn’t as bad as he thought because she offered to help him after class and she wanted him to improve. But still, his parents didn’t care about how he was going to fix his grades and do better on the next test, they only saw the big red F on the paper and apparently, that meant their son was a failure.

Troy thought that was dramatic, but he still was probably going to have to deal with a very angry set of parents later regardless. He really didn’t want to be yelled at for something he knew he did wrong and was working on fixing, but they don’t care about how he’s going to do better or how he’s going to work hard to bring his grades back up, they only see the big red F on the paper and think that’s somehow an indication of his overall intelligence. If he could just explain to them- if they could just listen, everything would be fine. But they don’t listen, and they don’t understand.

So Troy didn’t want to go home. He waited nervously through his classes, anxiously looking at the clock, dreading the moment he had to go home. Will asked if he was okay before their history class, and Troy didn’t have time to explain what was going on before class started, so he just nodded and brushed Will off. Now it was last period, math, and Troy was having trouble focusing on his worksheet. The class went by so fast, the one time he needed it to go slow.

Suddenly the bell was ringing and Troy felt like class had just started. He begrudgingly packed his things, stomach sinking at the idea of coming home to his angry parents He trudged through the halls, mostly given up at this point. There wasn’t really anything he could do, he could try to hide the test but they’d probably find it in his backpack.

Troy eventually made his way out to his car, meeting Will there as he does every day.

“Hey!” Will chirped, leaning against Troy’s car.

“Hey,” Troy echoed, more tired than Will had said it.

“What’s wrong?” Will asked as Troy unlocked the car and he slid inside the passenger seat.

“Oh,” Troy began as he started the car but didn’t put it in drive, “I failed that biology test and my parents are going to be super pissed about it, and I _know_ they’re going to flip out and yell at me and I just don’t want to deal with that.”

Will hummed thoughtfully, scratching his ear.

“What if you just don’t go home?” He suggested.

“What?”

“I mean, what if we went somewhere and hung out so you weren’t so stressed out about this?” Will reached over and put his hand on Troy’s leg, making Troy’s heart race. “What if you just don’t go home?”

Troy thought about the suggestion. It would be nice to not have to go home and immediately deal with his parents screaming at him, and he would definitely rather spend that time with Will doing something fun, something he wanted to do.

Troy sighed, shifting a hand through his hair.

“Yeah alright, let’s do it,” he agreed.

Will grinned at him and clapped.

“Yes!” Will pumped his fist childishly, and Troy held back a snicker.

“I know just the place to go, follow my directions,” Will ordered as Troy pulled out of the parking lot.

He followed Will’s directions, which lead them out of town and into the town over, they drove for forty minutes before they arrived at the destination. It was an old arcade, but it looked like it was spread between several buildings, with allies in between each one, connecting them.

“What is this place?” Troy asked as he stepped out of the car.

“An arcade. My mom, brother, and I used to come here a lot, they’ve got a lot of old games and stuff,” Will answered, walking over to Troy and standing next to him, he nudged his side with an elbow, “c’mon, it’s really fun, I’ll show you.”

Will lead Troy all over the arcade, and after mapping out a few highlights they got a couple handfuls of quarters and went to work.

Firstly, they played something called ‘down the clown’, which was basically just chucking balls at little clown cutouts and they were pretty good at it. Will was better at it than Troy, but they were able to rack up a lot of tickets playing it. Also, watching Will get worked up and shout things at the clown cutouts was fun.

“Fuck you asswipe!” Will shouted at one point, and Troy was a little shocked at how loud and angrily he had said that, but he hit the bonus point clown so Troy didn’t comment on it.

(And, Will looked really good when he got worked up and focused.)

They moved on from that to Pac Man, which Will was _awesome_ at but Troy sucked. So he mostly just watched Will play, transfixed as he expertly maneuvered through the levels.

“Don’t think about losing,” Troy teased at one point, leaning on the game next to Will.

“Shut the hell up,” Will barked, but a small smile still spread across his face.

“I’m serious, you’re doing really good so you shouldn’t think about losing it all after you’ve come so far.” Troy continued, leaning more onto the machine.

“Oh my God shut up.”

Will went on for another ten minutes before he lost all of his lives, and he was able to put his name in the fourth-highest score place on the game.

(Troy wanted Will to put ‘ass’ as his name but Will refused and just put his own name.)

Troy was, however, good at Dig Dug, a fact which amazed Will.

“You’re so good at this!” Will exclaimed, again, as Troy continued through the level. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It never came up,” Troy replied, pumping a tiny dragon full of air.

“I mean look at you go, you’re almost as good as Max,” he paused, “don’t tell her I said that though.”

“Do you like me more now that you learned this information?” Troy asked.

“Honestly? Kinda, yeah,” Will admitted, shuffling a little closer to Troy, “I could watch you do this forever.”

At some point, Troy lost, obviously, but he did get to put in his name for the fifth high score, and he _did_ put in ass as his name since Will had disappointed him.

Troy found a penny and used it to get some ‘romantic advice’ from a machine that had to be older than he was.

“‘Take more risks’” He read aloud, frowning at it.

“Yeah Troy,” Will mocked, punching his arm, “take more risks.”

He and Will also used a love tester that had to be as old or older than the advice machine, and they only got ‘burning’.

“We can do better than that,” Will insisted, pulling Troy closer to him like that would help their score.

“I don’t know Will, maybe you don’t like me as much as you say you do,”

“Not liking you so much right now,” Will teased, and Troy acted offended.

“Byers!” He wailed sarcastically, laying a hand on his forehead. “You hurt me!”

They redid the test and Will was squeezing Troy’s hand just a little too hard (but he didn’t mind), and they got ‘passionate’ which seemed to be enough for Will.

“We’re passionate,” Troy congratulated and gave Will a high five that was weak, all things considered.

“Yeah! Passionate!” He echoed, redoing the high five. “I’ll tell you what, I’d be more passionate about you if you got me one of those animals from the claw machine,” Will said, gesturing over to the machine in the corner, where two girls were trying and failing to scoop a stuffed dog into the box.

“Really?” Troy asked incredulously.

“Yes really!” Will argued, then fell onto Troy dramatically. “Troy, won’t you win me one of those crappy stuffed animals? It would mean ever so much to me.”

Troy rolled his eyes and shoved Will off of him, digging the remainder of his quarters out of his pocket.

“Alright claw machine,” he said as walked over, putting in a quarter, “prepare to get your ass kicked.”

“That’s the spirit!” Will cheered, smiling as Troy clumsily steered the claw over to a blue elephant in the corner.

It turned out to be harder than it seemed, as Troy took nine tries to get the claw to pick up the elephant, and thirteen to get the elephant into the prize chute. It was worth it, though, because Will got actually, genuinely excited. His eyes got wide, and he grabbed the stuffed animal, grinning.

“Oh my god, you actually did it.”

“Yeah, you should have picked up on the tenth try that I was in this for the long haul,”

Will laughed, kinda breathless. His eyes got softer, his posture a little more relaxed.

“I wish I could kiss you,” he murmured, taking a small step closer to Troy.

Troy held up the card that the romantic advice machine had given him.

“Take more risks,” he repeated, he could feel his face getting red and fondness seeping into his voice.

Will laughed again and dragged Troy out into the alley behind a building where all the noises were muffled and the world slowed down. He did kiss Troy then, wrapping the hand that held the tiny elephant around Troy’s neck, and pressing his other hand against Troy’s cheek. They didn’t stay that way for very long, probably five minutes, but it made Troy breathless either way.

Afterward, they got kettle corn and shared it out on the picnic tables in the small plaza in the middle of the buildings, laughing and joking in the late evening light. Troy wasn’t really worried anymore, being around Will made him feel like everything would be alright, even if that was an unrealistic thing to think. And as they shared kettle corn and Will twisted the tiny pink bow around the elephant’s neck, Troy wished he could stay in this moment forever. Eventually, though, Will said they had to get going, but before they left, Will asked for Troy’s failed biology test.

“Yeah sure,” Troy shrugged, and dug through his backpack, “I dunno what you want it for, though.”

He handed it to Will, still confused. Will took the marked up test and crumpled it up, dropping it into the trash.

“Whoops,” He said, shrugging, “now it’s like it never even happened.”

Troy grinned at him, appreciation washing over him in a strong wave.

“Thank you,” he replied gently.

Will waved the stuffed elephant he was holding around.

“Don’t mention it.”

Troy drove Will back to his house, the two of them continuing easy conversation over the soft noise of the radio. Will kissed Troy goodbye as they reached Will’s house, squeezing his shoulder and smiling at him affectionately.

“Don’t worry about your parents,” he reassured, “if they give you a hard time, just come over here. Okay?”

Troy nodded, swallowing a thick lump of feelings.

“Okay,” he answered, voice shaky.

Will got out of the car, waved, and then walked up the driveway into his house. Troy stared after him, smiling, any lasting worry melting off of him as he thought back to that afternoon.

He drove home, walking in and noticing his mother in the kitchen.

“Hello Troy,” she said, stirring something in a bowl.

“Hey mom,” he greeted, kicking off his shoes.

“How was your day?” she asked casually, looking out of the corner of her eye at him.

“It was alright, actually.”

She hummed and looked back at the bowl.

“Good,” she responded without any particular emotion behind that, and Troy took that as the end of the conversation.

He walked up the stairs, at a regular pace, and waited until he was in his room to freak out and gush about the events of that afternoon and Will. He screamed into a pillow on his bed and wrapped himself up in a blanket, all concerns and worries that had been sinking in his stomach earlier were gone, replaced with fiery sparks when he thought about Will. That was a good day, shockingly, and Troy had already forgotten about his biology test. 

* * *

_If You Leave- Orchestral Movements in the Dark_

_”This is from that one movie, Pretty in Pink, the one I keep saying you should watch. I think one of these days we’ll get around to watching it instead of watching the same three movies over and over… anyway, this is a good slow dance song and maybe one day I’ll be able to show you what I mean by that. Literally, I have thought of slow dancing with you so much it’s ridiculous, like every time this song comes on. And that’s a lot, because El loves this movie and has the soundtrack so we listen to it a lot. But, my point stands, uh, what was my point again… right, slow dancing. Let’s do it.”_

Troy was helping Will clean the kitchen.

His mom and Hopper were out, and El was at Max’s house, which left just the two of them. They hadn’t even done much while Will’s family was gone, just watched TV and made fun of each other. They did more when Will’s family was there.

Will and Troy had spent an hour trying to get something figured out for dinner and ended up almost lighting the kitchen on fire and ordering pizza.

Well, _Will_ almost ended up lighting the kitchen on fire.

The soup Troy was making would have turned out fine if Will hadn’t done some kind of voodoo to make it start on fire.

“I’m cursed!” he shouted as they struggled to put out the burning soup. “I don’t know how this keeps happening!”

Will was just predisposed to setting things on fire, apparently.

They had ended up ordering pizza, and Troy was certain that the teenage girl listening to him order could hear the smoke alarm going off in the background, and he was pretty sure that she could hear Will screaming. He would have been embarrassed but he was laughing too hard to really consider it.

When a different teenage girl showed up with the pizza they had ordered, she wrinkled her nose at all the smoke but didn’t comment on it. She just pressed her lips together in a tight smile and squinted at Troy like she was determining whether or not to call the fire department. She looked back at the house as she walked down the driveway to her car, and she probably looked back one more time as she drove away.

“Someone’s going to call the cops on us I swear,” Will complained as he stood on a chair and waved a towel at the smoke alarm as if that’d get it to stop beeping.

“Only because you kept screaming like _you_ were on fire.”

Will frowned at Troy and chucked the towel he was holding at him.

It took another twenty minutes for the smoke alarm to shut off, no thanks to Will’s towel waving.

After they had put out the fire and wiped the smoke smudges off of the oven hood, they sat on the couch and ate pizza while watching reruns on TV. Troy hassled Will the whole time about nearly burning his own house down while making soup.

“How do you start soup on fire?” he kept asking, nudging Will in the side and watching as Will got red and looked away.

But now they were cleaning the kitchen and putting dishes away, each of them grabbing dishes from the dishwasher and from the counter next to the sink, drying them if they were still wet.

Music was playing softly from the living room, the radio turned to a gentle station as Troy and Will methodically put the kitchen back in order.

The radio was tuned to some station that exclusively played music from the fifties, and Troy assumed that’s just what Will’s mom listens to. So far Troy has only heard a few songs he recognized, and after a while, all the songs started to blend together into one smooth and plucky string of music. The music came through just crackly enough to have a homey sense to it, but the sound was still clear, even in the kitchen in the room over. Will was tapping his foot to the music as it played, he hopped on his feet and drummed his fingers on the sides of the dishes as he put them away. Troy watched him appreciatively, smiled a little as he washed black scorch marks off a pot.

It had just gotten dark outside, and the last breaths of sunlight were still hovering around the edges of the horizon. Late summer crickets were chirping outside energetically, the ring of them flowed in gently through the open window, along with the chilled September breeze. Occasionally a strong draft would come in and ruffle Will’s hair, and Troy would always pause to admire Will and the easy way his hair shifted in the breeze.

The whole kitchen smelled like the fading summer air, the crisp air of the outdoors eventually replaced the smoke as the night went on. The moon had risen slowly and steadily and was casting a pale white ray over the sink, glimmering and reflecting in the soapy water. Sometimes when Troy walked by the kitchen window, he could see the stars in the night sky.

“That’s not where that goes,” Will told Troy, shooing him away from a cupboard and guiding his hand into a cabinet. Eventually, he just grabbed the bowl from Troy’s hands and put it in its proper place.

“Thanks, I didn’t know you were so particular about where your bowels go.”

“ _I’m_ not, El is. If it’s in the wrong spot she’ll kill you.”

Troy blinked at Will, freezing his hand as it reached for a mug.

“I’m joking, obviously, oh my God.” Will laughed, shoving Troy gently.

“Listen, she’s scary! I don’t-”

“She wouldn’t actually get mad over the dishes. Probably, I mean,” Will assured, grabbing onto Troy’s arms. He swayed them slightly, moving both of them as they stood in the kitchen, just barely in time with the music from the living room. Whenever Will held onto Troy in any way he kept shifting around like he was being blown in the wind.

“Yeah but she gets mad over other things,” Troy pointed out, he swayed a little with Will.

“Listen, if she tries anything, I’ll protect you, don’t even worry about it.”

“That’s very reassuring, thank you.”

Will looked Troy in the eyes, gaze a genuine mix of teasing and comforting, and Troy’s stomach flipped.

“Really,” Will squeezed Troy’s arms, “really.”

“Yeah alright Byers, don’t get mushy on me,”

Will rolled his eyes, but held Troy a little closer, their swinging motion evened out into a less chaotic rocking back and forth. Eventually Troy moved his arms so they were wrapped around Will, resting his head on Will’s shoulder and holding him gently as Will wrapped his arms around Troy’s neck, the two of them still moving gently.

“Why do you always do this?”

“Do what?”

“Whenever you touch me you start swaying around, like this,” Troy swung himself and Will back and forth a little faster than normal, just enough to emphasize what he was doing.

Will shrugged, continued to rock them, though slowing them down to a softer pace, like a porch swing in the breeze.

“I don’t know, I get fidgety when I’m excited.” Will grinned at him, hands warm in Troy’s. “And I’m unbalanced, I’m constantly at risk of falling over.”

“I’ve noticed that you’re particularly unstable,”

Will slanted them over to the side slightly, tilting his head over to look sideways at Troy.

“I’m quirky, I’m special and you love that about me.” he teased, brushing some hair out of Troy’s face tenderly.

Troy pulled Will upright again, and Will spun both of them in an easy circle. Will had this loving look in his eyes that made Troy’s knees weak and he almost fell over.

“Are you trying to dance with me Byers?” he quipped despite how lightheaded he felt.

“You wish,” Will replied as he spun them both in a circle smoothly again.

Troy didn’t really have anything to respond to that with, and honestly, all coherent thoughts in his head scattered when Will looked at him like Troy was all that mattered in the world, so he just kept quiet.

(Troy was sure that if he opened his mouth he’d just start screaming.)

So they just slowly whirled around the kitchen, only slightly in time with the music, with soft steps and gentle touches.

“This song isn’t even from this period, technically, it’s just in Grease,” Will said, pulling apart just a little to look up at Troy.

“I think I haven’t seen it since I was twelve.”

“Really? We need to watch it sometime, I love that movie,”

“I don’t remember how I feel about the movie, in general,” Troy explained, he leaned forward and bumped his forehead against Will’s, “but I’ll be honest, I’m kinda into this song.”

Will glanced up into Troy’s eyes, smiling fondly.

“It’s because you are, in fact, hopelessly devoted to me.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it,”

“And this song is just good, in general.”

“I like the first reason better.”

“Yeah,” Will kissed Troy’s cheek and then went back to leaning against his forehead, “me too,”

The kitchen went quiet again, the song faded out and another one started. The crickets seemed to get louder, and the sunlight vanished completely from the sky. Troy wasn’t really paying attention to anything that wasn’t Will though. The longer he spent with Will, the harder it was to focus on things that weren’t him.

“My mom listens to this kind of music a lot,” Will mumbled after a little while, breaking the silence, “I’m kind of used to listening to it now.”

“I’ve never heard half of these songs,”

Will hummed, and Troy felt it reverberate against his chest.

“Do you know this one?” Troy continued, looking down at Will.

“I think so… give me a minute.”

Troy scoffed gently, Will’s hair shifted a little under his breath. He had been running his fingers through it gently but now he was just kind of petting Will’s head docilely.

“Uh, It’s Been a Long, Long Time. I don’t know who sings it, but I feel like knowing the song title is good enough.”

“That is good enough,” Troy grinned at Will, “I’m impressed.”

“Well, if you can believe it, I’m also good at things besides naming fifties songs.”

“That’s shocking.”

Will and Troy fell into a pattern of brief conversation followed by serene silence, all the while swaying and twirling around the kitchen in circles.

“Do you ever think about going to prom?” Will asked out of nowhere, catching Troy’s eye seriously.

“No, not really. I doubt we’d be able to do anything, and I don’t feel like being around my classmates longer than I have to,” Troy replied, he brushed hair out of Will’s eyes.

“Yeah, but I just think it’d be fun, I think we should go.”

“No, we shouldn’t,”

Will sighed, dipping forward and resting his chin on Troy’s shoulder.

“I doubt they’d play fifties music.” Troy joked, leaning his head against Will’s.

“I think I just want to slow dance with you again,” he mumbled, squeezing Troy a little.

“Are we dancing? Is this slow dancing.”

“This is lazy slow dancing, the kind where you’re too wrapped up in holding the other person close to pay attention to actual dance moves,” Will’s eyes were shining when they met Troy’s, his cheeks were endearingly pink, “when you’re too distracted to pay attention to anything other than them.”

Troy’s heart swelled inside his chest.

“Maybe we _should_ go to prom,”

“No we shouldn’t,” Will assured, starry-eyed, and nudged his nose against Troy’s.

Will moved his hand up to the back of Troy’s head and pulled Troy in for a brief kiss.

“Listen,” Troy started, earnestly, “if you want to go to prom, I’ll go with you. Literally, anything you want to do, anywhere you want to go, I’ll follow you. I’d do anything and everything for you.”

Will tried to look incredulous, but adoration was still clear on his face and his eyes were soft with fondness.

“Don’t get mushy on me, Harrington.”

Troy cradled Will’s cheek in his hand and kissed him again, Will’s hands wrapped around Troy’s neck and it seemed like the music faded out entirely.

Then the front door opened and Will and Troy jumped apart as if someone ripped them away from each other.

“We’re home!” Joyce called like she was warning them.

Troy appreciated the effort, very considerate of her.

“Why does it smell like smoke in here?” Hopper asked loudly, stomping into the kitchen.

“It’s a long story,” Will began, glancing at Troy out of the corner of his eye and stifling laughter.

Troy’s heart tied itself in knots. 

* * *

_Dreams- Fleetwood Mac_

_”It’s a lot of Fleetwood Mac, hopefully, I told you that, otherwise you’d be unprepared for the sheer amount of Fleetwood Mac on this tape. I’m the surest about this band, I’m the most sure that you’ll like them, so I put them on here a lot. I’m not actually a huge fan of the band but I put the songs that I liked the most on here, and this one is really good. Really really good, and I listen to it a lot. You said you like calm songs, the soft, relaxing ones, well this one is the most relaxing song ever, seriously. I don’t think I’ve ever put it on when you’re at my house because the album it’s on is the one I listen to when I’m panicking, and I never panic around you. Anyway, go ahead and listen to it, see if it doesn’t make you want to fall asleep in the rain.”_

Troy and Will were laying in bed together on a hot August night, talking about something dumb.

There was a tape playing softly in the background, it had probably played at least twice by now, barely loud enough to hear over the whirring of the fan propped against the propped open window, which was allowing cool night air and the sound of cicadas into the room.

They were laying side by side, facing each other, Troy idly threaded his fingers through Will’s, Will rubbed small circles on Troy’s hands with his thumb. They were laying underneath two blankets, legs entwined with each other.

Troy was saying something about this idiot in his biology class when Will’s pitbull puppy Roxie came in, slobbery and immensely happy, the tags on her collar jingling. She jumped up onto Will’s bed with some struggle and settled right at Will’s feet like he did every night.

Will sat up, detaching himself from Troy’s arms and leaned over to pet Roxie, who was already shaking in excitement and rolling over so Will could scratch her belly. Will Immediately started baby-talking to the puppy, fawning over her as one does over puppies.

“Sweetheart,” Will cooed, letting Roxie lick his chin and scratching her gently behind the ear, “sweetie pie,”

Troy watched, transfixed, as Will in his baggy pajamas with his hair all messy cuddled with his dog, sweetly and intimately like Troy wasn’t even there.

Sometimes the little things Will did made Troy get flustered and blushy, despite Troy’s best efforts. He often got overwhelmed by how much he loved Will, even when Will wasn’t doing anything particularly special.

“What?” Will asked, unfortunately, he had noticed how red Troy had gotten and turned to him, still scratching Roxie’s stomach. “Do you want me to talk to you like that?” He was being sarcastic, but Troy felt his heart leap into his throat and his cheeks blossomed with heat.

“No, leave me alone” Troy dismissed, laughing nervously, he was a pink hot mess and he kept fidgeting

“Aww baby,” Will crooned, crawling back over to Troy, “darling,”

“Stop,” Troy sputtered, his head spun.

He sat up and pushed Will away jokingly, running a hand loosely through his hair.

Just dating Will and getting normal amounts of affection from him was enough to reduce Troy into a gushy mess, just doing small intimate things made Troy feel like he was having heart palpitations. So this was too much, Troy might die. He was in so deep that Will could probably get him to do anything if he just kissed him in the right way. The introduction of pet names might actually kill Troy, his heart might just stop.

“Sweetheart,” Will purred, bringing his face close to Troy’s, breath hot on his lips, “puppy,”

He could feel his stomach roll pleasantly but startlingly inside him.

“Stop,” Troy whispered, breathing heavy through his slightly parted mouth, eyes half-lidded and a little glassy, staring up at Will.

He kissed Troy then, swinging his arms easily around Troy’s neck. Troy instantly placed one hand on Will’s hips and the other framed Will’s face, falling into place on muscle memory alone. Will’s fingers curled through Troy’s hair, taking a strand and twirling it between two fingers.

“Baby,” Will murmured against Troy’s lips, pulling back just a little.

A satisfying shudder went down Troy’s spine, shaking out all his burnt nerve endings.

“You used that one already.” He mumbled, eyes still closed, blindly dipping forward to kiss Will again. He caught the edge of Will’s mouth, and Will had to tilt his head a little to meet Troy’s kiss.

“I know,” Troy could feel Will smile against his lips, “but I like the way you react when I say it.”

Troy huffed out a short laugh through his labored breathing.

“Baby,” Will said again, hushed and slow. Troy felt like his heart stopped, something warm and thick wrapped around it.

Then Will gave a final kiss on Troy’s lips and moved to his neck.

Roxie across the bed sighed in annoyance that Will had stopped petting her, and adjusted her position on the bed grumpily, curling her paws against her chest and stretching her legs out.

Troy meanwhile was still fighting for his life as Will whispered pet names in between soft kisses and bites on his neck. His heart was hammering in his chest, sluggish and heavy but also quick and harsh against his ribs.

“That’s gonna be hard to cover up” Troy breathed as Will pulled away from a new hickey forming above his collar bone, a little below his jaw.

“Just say a girl did it,” Will shushed him, fingers briefly ghosting over the skin on the other side of his neck and making Troy’s hair stand on end, “like you always do.”

“I think eventually my parents are going to want to meet this girl who I’m always sneaking off to make out with,” Troy felt Will laugh softly against his skin.

“She could move, or you could break up or something, right before she was going to come over for dinner, what are the chances?”

Troy huffed out a short laugh, that got cut off and melted into a breathy pant as Will kissed Troy’s neck again. He was biting him every once in a while too, but he was being too gentle to leave any marks, just under Troy’s jawline.

“Honey,” he whispered, Troy’s nerves lit up like fireworks, his skin felt like it was on fire, sparking under Will’s touch.

Will moved over to where Troy’s shirt could easily cover so his parents wouldn’t ask any more questions than they already would, abandoning his carefulness to avoid leaving marks.

“Sweetie,” he hummed, kissed a spot that was starting to form along his collarbone again, “angel,”

“I like that one,” Troy laughed breathlessly, ran a hand through his hair to try and gather his bearings.

“Angel?” Will asked lowly, lifting his hand to cup Troy’s face and rubbing circles on Troy’s cheek.

“Yeah,” Troy sighed, tilting his head into Will’s hand and fluttering his eyes shut.

Will smiled against Troy’s neck and moved up a little further.

Troy honestly had forgotten how he had gotten here, what had lead to Will whispering to him sweetly and kissing him and making Troy’s stomach flip.

“Dear,” Will exhaled, and Troy laughed again, a little less breathy this time.

“That one makes you sound like an old lady,”

“It does a little bit,” Will snickered, pulling away from Troy’s neck to laugh, and Troy took the opportunity to kiss Will’s cheek chastely.

He quickly resumed his task though, though Troy was unsure of what that was exactly, and slid across Troy’s neck to the space where his neck met his shoulder. Troy had always been sensitive there, and Will liked to mess with him since he knew that doing anything regarding that part of his body made Troy completely melt into Will.

So Will got to work, first gently kissing the spot and then roughly sucking on it. Troy was already a complete mess, but now he was absolutely gone. Any remaining common sense or rational thought had flown out of the window the moment Will started kissing that spot, and all Troy could do was make small squeaking noises and try not to faint.

Will lifted his mouth from the bruised area briefly, and Troy was suddenly scared that he would faint.

“Baby,” Will whispered again, tender and soft, his breath was hot, so hot on Troy’s neck. Troy’s arm spasmed and he made a pathetic, horrifically loud, mewling sound that had he not been so wrapped up at the moment would have made him want to fall off the face of the Earth in embarrassment.

Will laughed, low, breathy, and tauntingly and it made Troy shudder.

“You’re getting really worked up over this,” Will noticed, kissing Troy’s jaw.

“I feel like-“ he took a sharp intake of breath as Will started sucking lightly on his jaw, “can you blame me?”

“No, no I can’t,” Will pulled away to look at Troy’s face, kissed his forehead, but he noticed the clock behind Troy. “It’s late,”

“How late?” Troy mumbled, eyes falling closed as Will’s left hand traced his jaw with his finger.

“Late late, especially if you want to do homework in the morning,” Troy hummed, he was somewhat tired. He had forgotten about it until now, Will had distracted him with the sweet talk.

“Cmon sweetheart,” Will lulled, softly guiding Troy down and laying both of them down, “let’s get some sleep,”

“Mm okay,” Troy agreed, sleepiness washing over him in a powerful wave.

Will kissed the back of Troy’s neck as Troy cuddled into him, and slung an arm around Troy’s waist. Their legs tangled together again, and Troy felt Will’s soft sigh against his neck, ruffling his hair. Usually Troy was the one holding onto Will, but he didn’t mind the change.

Will shuffled a little closer to Troy, and Troy reached up to squeeze Will’s hand briefly.

“Goodnight angel,” Will cooed, and Troy’s stomach did a final flip as he slipped off into sleep to the sound of Will’s breathing, the fan, and the tape finishing for a third time in the late summer night.

* * *

_True Blue- Madonna_

_”This is *laugh* This is ridiculous. El listens to a lot of Madonna, right? So she came up to me and she was like, ‘you’re making a playlist right? You should listen to this,’ so I did and like,_ it’s Madonna, _but it’s sappy and fun and I just want you to listen to it. Who knows, maybe you like Madonna too and just have too much pride to tell me, who knows. I said that twice… listen to the song, it’s really mushy but I just- I wanted to put it here anyway. El’s got us pinned, by the way.”_

Will was kicking Troy’s ass at foosball.

Troy watched sadly as the tiny ball flew past his fake soccer player’s legs.

“Goddamn it,” He cursed, fishing the ball out of the slot.

Will pumped his fist, grinning as he was now beating Troy nine to one.

“Why are you so good at this?” Troy huffed. He shot the ball from his side of the table, and Will caught it easily, firing it back at him.

“I’m not sure that I’m that good at it, I just think you’re bad at it,” Will countered, whacking the ball Troy had kicked to him away from the tiny plastic goal. “Let me guess, Steve used to beat you a lot too?”

Troy hit the ball from the corner, and it bounced off the wall into the goal on Will’s side.

Troy grinned, laughing tauntingly.

“Not so much, actually,”

Will smiled back, teasing and sarcastic, and grabbed the ball from the hole.

“Alright, three to nine,” he quipped, setting the ball on the table.

Will for once was able to come over to Troy’s house, given that his parents were out for a whole two weeks and Troy was fairly certain that they wouldn’t come back halfway through the trip because they had forgotten something.

(One time they had forgotten some papers or something and showed up at home just twenty minutes before Will was supposed to come over. Now Troy was paranoid that they would just appear and Will would have to jump out a window or hide in a closet or something.)

He had been giving Will a tour of the house, which had ended up in the basement and with them making out on the couch down there, but at some point, Will saw the foosball table and thought it’d be fun if they played.

It turns out, Will is really good at foosball, which Troy was not expecting.

“Are you upset that I’m winning?” Will taunted, firing the ball over to Troy’s side, but he was able to block.

“Are you really winning?” Troy asked, smiling teasingly at Will.

“The scoreboard doesn’t lie,” Will gloated, gesturing to the tiny circles that you could slide back and forth. Will had used nine of the eighteen, and eventually they wouldn’t be able to play anymore or they’d have to reset it.

“The hickeys on your neck say otherwise,” Troy replied casually as Will shot the tiny metal ball over to him.

Will jumped and smacked a hand against his neck, covering one of the hickeys that Troy had made earlier, a hot red blush was covering his face. Troy fired the ball across the table into the unguarded goal, grinning as he moved one circle to the side on his scoreboard.

“Four to nine, I just need five more,”

Will gaped at Troy, which turned into a scandalized shout.

“That’s cheating!” Will accused.

“Is it? I think it’s just knowing your opponent,” Troy replied casually, moving over another circle on the board.

“Oh is it?”

“Yeah, it’s fair if I was smart enough to think to do that,”

“Sure sure, because you’re _so_ smart,” Will huffed sarcastically, then he lifted his head to catch Troy’s eyes, and he didn’t like the mischievous glint in Will’s eyes when he met Troy’s glance. “Aren’t you baby?” Will cooed, leaning on the foosball table and resting his chin in his palm, voice slow and soft.

The flirty tone in Will’s voice made Troy’s stomach drop, and Will’s eyes had gotten big and affectionate, his hair stood on end.

Then Will moved his arm and shot the tiny ball into the goal on Troy’s side easily since Troy was unable to move.

“Six more,” Will hummed, folding his arms and grinning victoriously.

Troy laughed to try to ground himself again, voice coming out breathy and strained.

“Now _that’s_ cheating.”

“Tough luck, sweetie,”

Troy rolled his eyes and set the ball back in the middle of the tiny fake soccer field.

“Alright, prepare to have your ass kicked.”

“I’ve _been_ prepared, it hasn’t happened yet,” Will snarked back, smirking at Troy.

“Ouch, you’re bold tonight,”

“And you like that,” Will stated, leaning onto the table just a little.

“Maybe, maybe I do,” Troy admitted, just a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“You just like anything I do, huh? You’re infatuated with me,” Will purred, planting his hands on the table and propping himself up.

Troy’s heart jumped, and his knees buckled a little. He was getting ready to say something back, something cool and flirty that he hadn’t come up with yet when Steve walked down the stairs.

“Hey losers, you left the front door unlocked, anyone could have come in here,” Steve mocked, grinning at the two of them.

“Steve!” Troy exclaimed, running over to hug him.

Troy usually wasn’t so excited to see Steve, but he had gone to college three years ago and his visits were getting few and far in between with his newfound freedom and his parents cracking down on their rules. So Troy had really noticed how much he missed Steve these past few months.

“Hey man,” Steve greeted, hugging Troy back and ruffling his hair, “what’s going on?”

“Hi Steve,” Will waved from where he was standing by the foosball table.

“Hey Will,” Steve replied, then squinted, “nice hickey,”

Will flushed and covered the spot with his hand, frowning at Troy.

“Hey, I told you about it!” He defended. “I thought you were joking! Or just trying to throw me off!”

“I would _never_ do that!” Troy promised innocently. “

Well,” Steve interrupted loudly, rolling his eyes, “I’ve got pizza upstairs and if you guys promise not to be gross, you can have some.”

“Hell yeah!” Will cheered, pumping his fist again.

He and Troy followed Steve back up the stairs, bickering about who was going to win the abandoned game of foosball which both of them were pretty sure they would not come back to. They got pizza and settled on the couch, as Steve put in a movie.

Troy wasn’t sure when the decision to play a movie occurred, or why Steve thought it’d be a good idea to watch a movie with a teenage couple, but he didn’t comment on it.

Will was sitting with his legs on top of Troy’s and they were flirting gently.

“I said you guys have to not be gross!” Steve shouted from where he was trying to figure out what movie to watch.

“Oh, so we shouldn’t like, feed each other pizza?” Troy quipped, lifting a slice of pizza in the air as a demonstration.

“God, no.”

“Like this?” Will asked innocently, propping one of his pieces of pizza up for Troy to take a bite of.

“Do not do that,” Steve groaned, running a hand over his face.

Troy and Steve were pretty similar, especially since they had a lot of the same mannerisms and tics.

“Okay, so we can either watch Aliens or-”

“Aliens!” Will yelled excitedly.

“Or-” Steve tried again but Will cut him off again.

“Aliens! Aliens is the obvious answer.”

“Sorry Steve, I gotta agree with him there,” Troy argued, shrugging as Will fed him another bite of pizza.

“I hate both of you, you’re awful when you team up,” Steve grumbled.

“Thank you,” Will grinned, and fist-bumped Troy.

They did end up watching Aliens, mostly because Will refused to watch anything else. Steve sat on a separate couch, making some excuse about not wanting to deal with their disgusting PDA and adding a lot of fake gagging noises, but Troy knew he just wanted to give them some space, and he knew how hard it was for them to do things like this, especially in Troy’s house, and Troy was greatly appreciative of that. He could have done without some of the gagging, though.

So they watched Aliens, and all of them yelled at the screen often. Ripley was clearly the smartest person in the movie, and all of them were equally frustrated that she wasn’t getting the respect she deserved.

Steve had turned off the lights, so the three of them were in the dark, watching people get ripped in half by Xenomorphs. Troy had gotten up to get water and Steve and Will had asked for blankets, so now Troy was huddled with Will under a fuzzy blanket, which had actually been a good idea. Their plates were stacked on the coffee table, mostly forgotten about.

At some point as the crew struggled to fire at the aliens that were crawling around in the vents, Troy looked down at Will. His face was illuminated by the screen, the flashes of gunfire reflecting in his eyes. He noticed Troy staring and met his eyes, smiling softly.

“Hi,” he whispered, inching his face a little closer to Troy’s.

“Hi,” Troy whispered back, and Will tipped forward just a little and kissed him, shuffling closer under the blanket.

“You guys are missing the good part,” Steve complained.

“The whole movie’s the good part,” Will remarked, not fully pulling away from Troy.

Steve huffed, and the couch cushions made a shuffling noise as he adjusted his position.

“ _You’re_ the good part,” Troy joked, and he heard Steve groan loudly from across the room.

“Both of you are disgusting, you know that?” Steve sighed, and Troy could tell he was only pretending to mean it.

“Thank you, Steve,” Troy commented, only pulling back a little so Will’s forehead still touched his.

“Don’t mention it,” Steve replied, smiling at Troy from across the room, gently and reassuringly.

Troy really did love Steve, and even though he’d never say it, he was the best sibling Troy could have asked for. 

* * *

_Lights- Journey_

_”Yeah, I know you_ say _you like Journey but you have only listened to like, two of their songs and you can’t like a band if you’ve only listened to two of their songs. This song is nice, I think. It’s kinda slow, and it makes me think of you… well, most things make me think of you, I guess… yeah… anyway. I hope you like it as much as I think you will. We’re nearing the end of this tape, and I hope it’s been as cool as I imagined it’d be, as special. I wanted to make it special for you since you deserve, we deserve, a special thing for just the two of us, that proves how much we care about each other and something we can always turn to when we want to be reminded of the other… anyway, listen to the song and finally you can say you like Journey and you can mean it.”_

Troy finished the tape, and he was essentially crying by the time it ended.

He was lying on his bed, on his back, completely floored. It was good that he had laid down because otherwise he would have probably had a head rush and fallen over.

His nerves were on fire, every ending sparking and buzzing and all of them had the same thought running through them: _Will, Will, Will, Will._

And that he was completely in love with Will.

Like, he knew it before then, he knew it when they kissed for the first time and when they went to the arcade that day after he failed the test and when they were playing foosball in his basement. He knew it when he was ten and he knew it now when he was sixteen and shakily breathing into his pillow, overcome with the feelings that had been growing in him for six years.

Troy sighed and sat up, running his hands over his face and through his hair, trying to regain his senses. He stood up from his bed, head spinning and heart hammering in his chest. He walked out into the hall towards the phone, and he leaned against the wall, dialing the number he knew by heart.

“Hello?” A familiar voice answered.

Troy smiled, he knew that the only time Will answered the phone was when he was waiting for Troy to call him, and he liked thinking about Will anxiously waiting near the phone and leaping up to answer it every time he heard it ring, thinking it was Troy.

“Hey,” Troy began, voice quiet and a little breathy, he was smiling into the receiver.

“Hi,” Will replied, and Troy could picture him smiling on the other end. He could hear the excitement bubbling beneath the surface in his voice.

“I finished the tape,” Troy told him.

“Really!? What did you think?” Will jabbered.

“Meet me at my car tomorrow, I’ll tell you then.”

“Like… like we do every day?” Will asked, a little disappointed.

“Trust me, it’s better if I tell you in person.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” Will joked, but he still sounded a little tender, like he was worried that would actually happen.

“No, I’m not breaking up with you. I don’t think I have that in me,” Troy admitted, laughing.

“I’m not sure I do either… alright, I gotta go eat dinner, see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, see you tomorrow at four-thirty, don’t be late!” Troy chimed before Will hung up.

Then Troy walked back to his room, incredibly happy and mushy and full of love for Will. He flopped onto his bed and sighed, hugging a bear that was lying on his bed to his chest, grinning stupidly at the ceiling. He couldn’t wait for tomorrow. 

* * *

_Leather and Lace- Stevie Nicks_

" _So, uh, this is the last song on here, and it’s actually by the lady from Fleetwood Mac, she made her own album. Anyway, this song is really sappy, but I like to listen to it and think of you, it just makes me feel better sometimes I hear it and I think about like, slow dancing to it with you, and all the things I want to do with you, all the places I want to go. So, this song is sappy because_ I’m _sappy and I feel mushy about you… uh, I hope you liked the tape? I put a lot of time into it y’ know, and I want you to like it, I’m pretty sure you will. Oh the notes between songs, like this one heh, uh, I hope you liked these too. I’m not as confident about them. As I am about the songs. I just wanted to do them because, well, I love you. I do, and I want you to know that. And sometimes I don’t say it, or I don’t mention how much you mean to me or how important you are, but uh, it’s a lot. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by you, by everything I feel for you, how much I love you. There's, ha, there are so many little things you do, and you don’t even know, but they drive me crazy, and… and I think about you all the time,_ all the time _, and I don’t always say what I mean because it’s hard, but I love you. So much. It scares me sometimes, and sometimes it’s hard to talk about but… God, I’ve said ‘sometimes’ like eight times… Anyway, Troy, I love you. And I hope you liked this tape as I much as I thought you would."_

“I love you.” Troy blurted, the minute he met Will by his car.

Will looked as shocked as Troy thought he’d be, eyes widening and his mouth falling open briefly before he caught himself.

“Wow, you liked it that much, huh?” He joked, a blush was starting to crawl up his neck.

“Like, dude, it was amazing-”

“You can’t say you love me and then call me dude,”

“I’m sorry, I say dude when I’m excited,”

“I know dude,” Will said fondly, affection shining in his eyes.

“It was like, the exact kind of music I want to listen to. I felt it in my soul, I want to listen to it literally all the time, it’s-” Troy paused his jabbering, looking up at Will, grabbing his hand, and grinning at him earnestly. “it’s exactly my taste.”

“I know,” Will said, then pointed a finger gun at Troy. “I got you figured out.”

“It was really good, and the notes you put in between songs, _the messages_ ,” Troy squeezed Will’s hands, swaying on his feet excitedly, “I loved it, and I _love_ you,”

Will swung his and Troy’s linked hands back and forth slightly, shifting on his feet and looking away.

“Ha, I’m glad you liked it,” he laughed nervously, squeezing Troy’s hands back.

“Those messages, they completely blew me away, and God, I don’t even know what to say except I love you. I love that you’re such a snob about music and that you shared that with me, and that you care so much about me and it shows in everything you do. I could feel how much you cared about me in those, like, anecdotes, they were so intimate and I couldn’t ever ask for anything better than those.” Troy paused, he had been talking for so long he kind of forgot to breathe.

He took a breath and pulled Will closer so their chests touched, bumping Will’s forehead with his own. “And I love you,” he repeated, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

Will scoffed, tapping his nose against Troy’s, face red and hot.

“You’re a dork,” he said, catching Troy’s eyes and smiling softly at him, “and I love you.”

They just stood there for a moment, in the empty school parking lot, foreheads touching, swaying gently in the cool October breeze. Everything else melted away, and all Troy was focused on was Will, the one thing he could always be sure of, always count on to be there. Will was what kept Troy grounded, what kept Troy from bolting out of this shitty town, Will always made sense when everything didn’t.

“We should probably go to my house and not stand in the parking lot,” Will mumbled, his hand cradling Troy’s face.

Troy laughed, leaning back from Will, but still holding onto his hands.

“Yeah, sure, get in.” Troy unlocked the doors and opened Will’s door for him then walked around to the driver’s side.

He slid into the seat and started the car, and Will opened the window the second the car was started.

“We should listen to the tape as we drive to your house!” Troy chirped, only half-serious.

“God, no, I don’t want to hear myself talk, I already had to do that when I made the stupid thing, and I don’t want to hear it anymore,”

“Well, you’re in luck because I left it in my room. I don’t even know if I have anything in here,”

“Alright, well, let’s just listen to the radio then,” Will suggested, reaching across the dashboard turning the radio on.

It was already on a station, one which sometimes played requests for songs that people sent in, usually dedicating it to some person. Will and Troy liked to listen to it and mock the songs that people chose to dedicate to people.

 _“If you had to choose a song to dedicate to me, what would it be?”_ Will had asked one night as they sat in Troy’s car, listening to the radio and eating McDonald's.

_“I think, Knowing Me, Knowing You by Abba”_

_“Shut up, get out, we’re breaking up,"_

The station was currently playing Under My Skin by Frank Sinatra, and Will smiled approvingly and nodded along.

“So, what song would you choose to dedicate to me on this station?” Troy asked as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the open road.

“I think any of the songs that I put on that tape would work,” Will replied, looking out the window and letting the wind blow his hair across his forehead.

“So, Leather and Lace?”

“Yeah, you got it,”

Troy snorted, and they drove through the town, the setting golden October sun casting everything in gilded shades of sunlight. They pulled up to a red light, and as Frank Sinatra crooned out the chorus, Troy leaned across the car and kissed Will, which maybe was not a good idea while he was driving, but he had kind of lost his common sense the minute Will said he loves him.

Will smiled against Troy’s lips and kissed back, bringing a hand to cup Troy’s jaw.

“Hey,” Will interrupted, patting Troy’s cheek to get his attention, “green light,”

Troy pulled away, and continued driving, smiling like a moron.

“I love you,” Will stated, still gazing out of the window, “and you’re a terrible driver.”

“I love you, and at least I _can_ drive.”

“Barely,” Will scoffed, lacking any real malice.

Will reached across the seat and grabbed Troy’s hand which was resting on the center console, and squeezed it.

"I love you, and your hands are sweaty.”

“I love you, and it’s because you stress me out.”

“I love you, and _you_ stress _me_ out.”

Troy’s smile got even bigger, and he could feel his organs turning into a pile of mush, his head was hot and spinning. Now that they had said it at least once, they were never going to stop saying it, Troy knew that for sure.

He also knew for sure that he loved Will and that he probably would forever. He knew that Will had him wrapped around his finger, and the events of these past few days made Troy think he had Will the same way.

As Troy and Will drove to Will’s house in the hazy and sleepy October afternoon, Troy felt more secure, surer of himself, and more stable than he ever had before. He felt like nothing could shake him, because he was holding Will Byers’ hand, and Will Byers loved him, and that was all he needed.

“You’re a dork,” Will stated, staring straight ahead, trying and failing to keep a smile off of his face.

“And you love me in spite of that,”

“Maybe I love you because of that,”

“Then you’re a dork too.”

“Obviously,” Will squeezed Troy’s hand again, affectionately, and Troy felt his heart swell in his chest.

Everything in Troy settled, and for a minute, Troy felt like everything made sense, and everything would work out.

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAAAAA  
> How was that? Good? Maybe? Apparently, I can only ever edit at the ass crack of night so I have no idea anymore.  
> I once got so far into editing this as proofreading, but then I noticed I forgot a whole section and I had to go back and write it. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again.  
> Also damn it, if Crazy by Aerosmith had come out earlier I would sure as fuck have put it in this fic. It might not necessarily describe their relationship specifically, especially not in this fic, but they definitely listen to it all the time and the chorus applies to them. I just like to think of them dancing in the middle of the night in their living room or something in the future. Anyway, that is also a good song.  
> I hope this fanfic was as good as I want it to be, and I hope that it tides you over until I have more substantial content to give to you.  
> Also! Do you like Troy x Will? Do you wish they had a ship name? Are you considering the ship and want to chat with like-minded individuals? WELL I have a discord server for you! The Troy and Will discord server is a place to talk about the ship and st in general and you can have a lot of fun and get to know new people. Here's a link but idk if it will work because I'm Dummy Stupid with technology and I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing: https://discord.gg/XQRpwp4  
> But if that doesn't work, then dm me on tumblr and I'll get you sorted.  
> My tumblr is bugrundy (that's right I'm rebranding) and I'd love it if you messaged me or left me an ask or just browsed my blog. Comments and kudos make me so so full of joy and I adore and appreciate every single one.  
> Alright, thank you for reading!!  
> Happy holidays!!!


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